Speaking of stupidity, U.S. Energy Secretary* Rick Perry** denies carbon dioxide is the primary driver of climate change and claims that challenging the science that says otherwise is a mark of “intellectual engagement.”

When Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) proposed a “Medicare for all” health plan in his presidential campaign, the nonpartisan Urban Institute figured that it would raise government spending by $32 trillion over 10 years, requiring a tax increase so huge that even the democratic socialist Mr. Sanders did not propose anything close to it.

@4 You should be glad we miss your stupid ass and worry about your welfare when you disappear. Besides, trolls — even bad ones — are hard to come by on this blog. Right now, you’re half of HA’s troll team, and the other one isn’t even worth counting. When you’re gone, it’s like trying to play basketball when nobody else shows up.

@6 Let’s assume that figure, which obviously is based on projected total U.S. health care spending, is correct. The $32 trillion dollar figure ($3.2 trillion a year) isn’t offset by the reduction of private spending by employers and individuals on health insurance premiums, deductables and copays, out-of-pockets, etc.

Yes, your taxes might be more, but the real question is whether your overall health expense would be less. Any honest comparison of the current system vs. government-run single payer would take this offset into account and state a NET difference in the cost of health care to businesses and individuals.

Single-payer Medicare-for-all wouldn’t “raise” health care spending by $3.2 trillion a year. At present, about 50% of U.S. health care spending goes through a government-payer system (Medicare, Medicaid, VA, Tricare, etc.); single payer would shift the other 50% into that system.

The real question is whether this shift would increase or lower costs. The private insurance industry skims over 25% off the top for the “service” of processing your payments to providers. The government’s costs in the Medicare program for essentially the same service are under 2%.

Under this scenario, it’s hard to see how single-payer run by the government could possibly cost consumers more than the present system.

Well, that’s an easy statement to make, because she did lose playing unopposed. In all meaningful senses of the term “opponent,” she didn’t have one. It’s hard to run against a charade.

I wouldn’t dispute that Trump voters had genuine and legitimate grievances. But they chose a very flawed vessel for their aspirations. So flawed, in fact, that they probably would have been better off with Hillary. We all would have.

And isn’t it smarter to run like hell rather than stopping to text your mom, when you’re sure there is and it’s chasing you?

UPDATE: Mauled teen texted mom before attack

“I’ve been running in the mountains for 30 years,” said Brad Precosky, a director of the race. “People come down off the trail and say they’ve run into a bear. Sometimes that means nothing; other times, it’s really serious. Like this.”

The teenager, who police said is from Alaska, reportedly sent a text message to his mother during his descent of the trail after the all-uphill race sometime around 12:30. He said he was being chased by a bear.

@12 “GOP would have been better off with a #CrookedHillary-appointed SCOTUS justice to the left of Garland…… How, exactly?”

Let me count the ways:

(1) A Court that wouldn’t turn our political system over to giant corporations; (2) A Court more partial to consumers and ordinary citizens than to giant corporations; (3) A Court that wouldn’t look the other way at undemocratic practices like gerrymandering and vote suppression; (4) A Court that wouldn’t uphold the taking of private property for private development purposes through eminent domain; (5) A Court that would protect the civil liberties of our citizens; (6) A Court that wouldn’t allow the police or giant corporations to invade our privacy at will; (7) A Court that would look at gun ownership as a responsibility instead of an unassailable right; … and lots more.

Of course, my link above is a clickbait site and in all likelihood false. But now that the White House has banned audio and video recording of press conferences, people can say anything they want and there is no way for Fat Donny to deny it. He’s too stupid to know when he’s being played by a real expert.

I find the idea to be perfectly in line with everything else he’s said, so it would be no surprise at all to hear that this is in fact exactly what Jackass Spice actually did say.

@6. What do you pay in premiums with your private coverage Doctor dumbfuck? What do employers pay for their employees health coverage Doctor Dumbfuck. No time to read the linked article but does it say whether that figure that you toss around so elegantly (faked orgasm) is beyond what it cost indivuals and employers presently for themselves and those on Medicare and Medicaid.

You being smarter than me should mean that you should at least try to act and show how much smarter you are andt spell it out more for a lazy dumbfuck like me.

Steve – I was reading ENR the other day (a recent publication). They did a piece on technology. One of the photos related to the article was a Sellen employee (woman). She had a nifty pair of virtual realty headgear on….no blueprints in her hands or on the Dodge Ram.

Roger Rabbit Commentary: Republicans opposed all these measures. They predicted runaway inflation when the real danger was deflation. If they’d gotten their way, we’d have had a Second Great Depression.

“Why would you entrust your and your family’s future to dumbfucks who put stupidity on a pedestal and worship it?”

Because Jesus.

Because ineducable morons don’t vote based on knowledge of things, or for educated people. All they want to hear is that Jesus wants a certain person to be elected, and the only validation they need for that is for the candidate to tell them so.

The GOP has discovered a nifty trick to winning elections. They know that they can be and do anything they want. They can molest children, rape women, embezzle billions of dollars, openly call for extermination of entire populations, smuggle drugs, kiddie porn or weapons and they will still win by claiming to be Christian$. That’s all that block of voters needs to sell them on the candidacy.

W.C. Fields was right.

Well, that and purging voting rolls with techniques like blocking out Hispanic names or those that sound a little too “Negro”.

The fact that the GOP regularly rapes the Social Security trust fund to balance the Federal budget doesn’t bother you at all does it.

I suppose that’s okay with you. Your stocks in coal mines and buggy whips will see you through anything. The reality is, that the GOP cannot win elections without openly cheating and stealing them. If everyone voted who was qualified to vote, the GOP/Corporate/Fascists would never win an election.

@39 We know you wanted the Great Recession to turn into another Great Depression so you could pick up cheap stocks, real estate, and other assets formerly owned by the working and middle classes. You’re upset because those plans were thwarted. Tough shit.

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